California Resident Troy Downing might ski in jeans, that fact is yet to be proven, but we know for a fact:

Troy Downing snowboards in shorts

Troy Downing once openly expressed his disdain for Donald Trump saying Trump is “either a liar or an idiot” and using the hashtag #NeverTrumpNeverHillary. Like all apologist Republicans, once he realized the GOP had the power to give tax breaks to the wealthy, like himself, he went silent about his fear of a lawless president controlled by a foreign power.

Here is Troy getting on the Trump Trainwreck and photo op with Donald Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

Trump tacitly endorses Troy Downing as he did with Greg Gianforte through his sons—the two complicit and possible soon to be indicted members of the Trump family.

Now that we know where Troy stands on Trump, do we know where he stands on anything else?

First off, where does he stand on his residency in Montana? Troy Downing claims to be a resident of Big Sky Resort. That is already a red flag because not many real Montanans live year-round at Big Sky Ski Resort. People from Hollywood fly in for a night, pretend they are “roughin’ it,” and then make an album titled “Man of the Woods” falsely projecting that they live the Montana country lifestyle.

Tax fraud aside or campaign fraud aside, not being considered a full-time resident of Montana has gotten Troy into other legal troubles. Troy Downing is charged with9 hunting violations for illegally purchasing resident hunting licenses when his time spent in Montana was “seasonal at best.”

“Downing is facing seven misdemeanors for unlawful purchase of or apply for resident license by nonresident. He was cited an eighth time for transferring a hunting license to another person and a ninth time for assisting an unqualified applicant in obtaining a hunting license.”

When faced with these 9 hunting violations for poaching and illegally transferring a license, Downing acted just how a good Trump comrade would. He went out and claimed that Montana FWP was part of a “deep state” conspiracy against him and blamed the media for being “fake news.” Now we know Troy stands against hard-working Montanans who fight every day to prevent poaching of our wildlife and the decay of our natural resources by a bunch of Hollywoods. Not to mention, at least half these Montanans voted for Trump as president.

If Troy doesn’t actually live in Montana, pretends Big Sky is his safari camp for poaching our wildlife, why is he running?

Because Ryan Zinke told him to.

The Zinke’s, Ryan and Lola, are old friends of the Downing family. They were good friends with one another in California when Zinke claimed to be a full-time resident of Whitefish. When Zinke was appointed Secretary of the Interior, he said to himself ‘why can’t my buddy Troy also pretend to be from Montana and win an election.’

Lola Zinke is now the campaign manager for Troy Downing. But it goes deeper than just having Zinke’s friend run for office in Montana. This is a proxy war between the Zinke’s and Steve Daines. See, Zinke is a full Trumper. He is amoral and only in search of power and money. Daines believes in these same things, but he and Greg Gianforte sprinkle their tax cuts for the wealthy with religious and socially conservative policies.

Daines’ man in the Senate race is Matt Rosendale. Matt will help Daines and Gianforte ensure a post-apocalyptic world for woman like we see in the Handmaid’s tale. Daines’ and Zinke never liked each other because of Daines’ extreme religious views. Zinke doesn’t like that he is losing power in Montana because of vehement opposition to his radical corporate policies to sell off our public lands. So, Zinke needs a proxy in Downing to stay relevant. Perhaps for a run for Governor in 2020.

So there you have it. Downing likes to hang out with other wealthy people at Big Sky Resort and thinks Montana is his playground where he can shoot and poach whatever he likes. He has disdain for the people who work hard in this state and only sees the Senate seat as an accolade for a wealthy man—not for serving the good people of this state.

If you appreciate an independent voice holding Montana politicians accountable and informing voters, and you can throw a few dollars a month our way, we would certainly appreciate it.